One of my fondest memories from my college days was playing a caffeine-fueled networked game of DOOM in the engineering computer lab on those late Saturday evenings. First person shooters became an important tool in my repertoire of stress-reduction activities.

Even after starting my first job, if I had a tough day at work, I would fire up Quake and run a few rounds – blasting beasts and creatures into oblivion. Never in a million years did I think that it would ever be possible to make your own free first person shooter games that would have the same level of detail, effects and action as those awesome first person shooters, without an in-depth knowledge of computer programming and graphic design.

Well, the day has come when anyone who can point and click has the ability to design intricate and fascinating game levels for a first person shooter game that is as simple or as detailed as you like. Thanks to amazing software called FPS Creator, you can now make your own game for free that includes rooms, passageways, items, levels and enemies of your choosing – it is a first person shooter game in a virtual world that you can create from scratch without knowing a single thing about computer programming.

How To Make Your Own Game For Free

There’s one important thing that you must know about the free version of FPS Creator before you get started, and it is that while you can create your multi-level game using all of the features available in the full version, you can’t create a standalone executable that you could distribute to your friends to play.

While this is a major drawback, it isn’t horrible if you intend to use the software much like you would a program like SimCity – you can build your game levels and then sit back and play them by clicking on “Test Level.” It is like imagining your favorite shooter game, creating it, and then having the opportunity to play the level that you’ve dreamed up.

The design area of this software is simply a giant grid. Within this grid, you place corridors, rooms, objects, enemies, items and anything else that exists within the software’s library of objects – which is fairly extensive. For example, if you click on the Segment Library in the left menu area, you’ll discover a set of common rooms and corridors, but also a couple of sets customized for a certain theme – science fiction and World War II.

All you have to do to build your levels is to double click on your selection and then place them within the grid however you want them. Press “R” to rotate the orientation 90 degrees. If you’re not sure how to do anything, just click on “Help” and open up the manual.

The manual for this software is actually a very well written document that is extremely helpful if you do get stuck. However, the odds are pretty good you won’t have any problems – the learning curve for this design app is not very steep at all.

Of course, no first person shooter game is complete without enemies. The enemies are within the “Entity” library, which also contains furniture and other objects that you’ll place into the rooms. Don’t forget to click on items and lay down weapons and ammo for your character to pick up, or you’ll find yourself trying to get through a dangerous game level without anything to protect yourself!

Game design really couldn’t be any easier than this. It’s just a matter of selecting the objects that you want and placing them into the grid in the correct orientation. Here, I’ve created a very small level with a start hallway, a room with an unarmed AI character, and then another hallway with an enemy waiting just around the corner.

Once you’re done building and saving the level, just click on “Test Level” – and after the software is finished rendering all of your objects, items, enemies and other elements of your design, you’ll find yourself standing in the middle of the dangerous virtual world that you’ve created. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get through it alive.

Here, you can see my opening hallway where I laid down a weapon (an Uzi) and just enough ammo to get started. Just beyond the opening is a room, and then an menacing hallway to the right, lit only by red lights.

Peaking around the corner, I spot my harmless (I think) AI character. I peek around the corner and he doesn’t move. Walking closer to him, he crouches to the ground…this guy won’t hurt a fly. I notice that in the corner of the room, I created a staircase that climbs up to a ceiling with no opening — oops! Stairs and upper levels take a bit of getting used to, but creating corridors and rooms are a snap.

As I headed down the red-lit hallway, I moved cautiously, as I knew that I’d placed an enemy just around the corner – a vicious looking science fiction female enemy character with a machine gun. Sure enough, the moment I peaked around the corner, she came after me and started shooting.

The realism of the attack was decent. There was blood splatter after every hit, and bullet holes remained in the walls and floor, as did a little bit of the gore from the fight. The realism of this game extends beyond just the shooting and blood. As you walk through your level, you’ll notice the sound effects and ambiance that you expect from professional first person shooters.

You can hear your footsteps as you walk, your weapon fire and reload sounds realistic, and the attack behavior of enemies is fairly aggressive, but with enough of a pause so that if you’re fast enough you’ll be able to take them out before they take you down.

Want to make your own free first person shooter games? Download a copy of FPS Creator today, give it a shot and let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Ryan Dube is MUO's Programming Editor. Ryan has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering. He's worked 13 years in automation engineering, 5 years in IT, and now is an Apps Engineer. He's spoken at national conferences on Data Visualization and has been featured on national TV and radio.